Closing the gap

Hello

I hope that you have enjoyed our guest bloggers over the last few weeks. As it was LGBT History Month, it seemed appropriate to focus on LGBT.

As we leave February and move into March, the spotlight is very much on gender. The 8^th March celebrates International Women’s Day and the month marks Women’s History Month. We also move ever closer to the deadlines for publishing our gender pay gap.
For public sector organisations that employ over 250 people, the deadline for publishing is 30^th March 2018. For private and voluntary organisations the 5^th April 2018 (and annually thereafter).
I guess most, if not all of us, have seen the headlines about pay inequalities at the BBC, Tesco and Asda. Despite the Equal Pay Act being in place since 1970, pay inequalities still exist, and this cannot be right or fair. Whilst publication has, and will reveal shocking statistics, the numbers are a small part of a bigger picture. The challenge for all organisations lies in the actions they have committed to. It is these actions that will make the difference in the longer term.

To better understand the context, it is important to know the difference between equal pay and a gender pay gap.

The Equal Pay Act made it unlawful for men and women to be paid differently for doing the same work, equivalent work, or work of equal value. This means paying men and women equally for work that is graded the same. The gender pay gap is calculated by comparing the average hourly rate of pay between men and women across the whole organisation, regardless of their role or grade.

Our own data shows we have an issue of representation, and not equal pay. Women are under-represented in senior graded roles, including at Executive level. Women are also over-represented in lower graded roles. This situation is more acute in Professional Services.

Our primary actions to redress this gender imbalance will therefore focus on our recruitment and selection processes. We are putting measures in place to ensure that these processes are without bias including:

• Using gender neutral language in our job descriptions and person specifications;
• Positive action statements in our job adverts;
• Placing adverts in a wide range of communication channels, including social media.
• Ensuring all recruiting managers complete recruitment, selection and interview skills training;
• Monitoring starting salaries to ensure consistency and fairness and challenge inappropriate decisions;
• In common with others in the Higher Education sector, we already offer a range of flexible working options and family friendly policies. A greater emphasis will be placed on promoting these as part of our recruitment processes.

We have been implementing the positive action provision of the Equality Act 2010, Section 159, since September 2016, and will continue to monitor its impact.

We also have a focus on progression. Existing staff have a career development discussion as part of our SRD process. We are strengthening career progression, seeking to create new opportunities and greater transparency in existing career pathways. Our work on academic career pathways will provide greater clarity for academic staff on opportunities and requirements to achieve promotion. They will help line managers navigate the process for promotions.

We have offered Aurora, the Leadership Foundation’s women only leadership development programme, since 2013. We recently delivered an in-house conference for our Aurora graduates to support their leadership journey. It enabled them to connect with each other and offered practical, strategic areas of work to apply their learning going forward.

Our own gender pay gap does not reflect where the University wants to be. The disparity needs addressing, and we are keen to play our role in achieving real gender equality.